Disclaimer 1: I haven't watched most of the Arrow Seasons, and only Season One of Flash, so I'm obviously behind on stuff. Please bear with me!
Disclaimer 2: I'm looking for a beta for this story; if interested please let me know!
Disclaimer 3: I'd really appreciate it if you readers let me know about any mistakes or issues with the story!
Disclaimer 4: Clay Buckley is the only person in this story who belongs to me. Sad but true.
Final Disclaimer: THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING!
CHAPTER TWO
It was the next morning. I woke up with a start, feeling strong and well again. I swung my legs over onto the floor and stood up.
"What. Da. Flipping. Hell. Even?" I stared at my image in the mirror. "I'm flippin' Zac Efron, yo!" I flexed my arm and whistled at my, ahem, GINORMOUS biceps.
My eyes were the only part of me that wasn't a carbon copy of Zac – they were deep brown instead of blue.
My senses peaked as Cisco, Oliver, and Felicity entered the lab.
"He's awake." I heard Cisco say, and my eyes immediately found the camera that had been on me since I got there.
"Yeah, I'm awake. Sup?" I said to the camera, just to let them know that I knew they were watching me.
"How'd he do that?" Cisco said haltingly.
"He has good hearing, remember?" I heard Oliver say before I pulled on a shirt that lay over a chair and walked out of the room.
"How do you feel?" Cisco asked.
"Uh, s-strange? What the hell h-happened to me?" I asked, not able to keep the agitation out of my voice.
"Sit down. Relax." Oliver said, his arms crossed over his chest.
"H-how can I relax when I changed from an average, overweight, boring guy into flippin' ZAC EFRON, overnight? And I can distinctly hear everything that's happening on this block and I c-can sense, like, emotions, and stuff. I changed into a completely different person OVERNIGHT."
"Actually, it took you eight days to finish transforming into what – I mean, who you are now," Felicity spoke up.
I ignored her... and the fact that she had called me a "what". "Not only that, but I'm h-here, at S.T.A.R. Labs with y'all and you're-you're not even real! How did I get here and how do I get back?" I rubbed my temples. "What's going on? How did this happen? W-why is my memory of Thursday after-n-noon until yesterday, blank?"
Oliver looked confused at my statements about their illegitimacy and it suddenly occurred to me that maybe I should cover up the fact that I wasn't from this world.
"We're still trying to figure out what exactly happened to you. We do have some ideas." Cisco said.
"What's the last thing you remember?" Oliver asked.
"W-working in the store – the one I work at." I realize how lame that was but I figured they ought to cut me some slack, considering the position I was in.
CONSIDERING THAT I JUST TURNED INTO ZAC EFRON! I MEAN, HOW EVEN? Oh, there's also the small matter of my having superpowers...
"Yeah. What time was that?"
"Uh, just before the lunch break. I'd taken the afternoon off."
"What for?"
"I was going to go to some kind of an expo or something." I rubbed my forehead. It hurt so bad. "Canine Improvement Expo, I believe it was."
"Canines... as in maxillary canines and mandibular canines?" Felicity questioned.
"No, dogs."
"So, what do you remember about this expo?" Asked Felicity.
"Nothing, nothing at all. But a little birdie tells me something big, like huge, happened. That same birdie tells me that you guys kn-know what happened."
"Correct and correct. Let's wait for Barry and Caitlin before we continue." Cisco said.
"Y-you won't have to wait long." Said I, with my head in my hands. "They just entered the b-building. Did you g-guys know that they went out last night and had a couple too many drinks? C-Caitlin has a killer hangover. Gotta love that Barry can't get drunk. Th-that's a cool ability."
Cisco checked the cameras and let out a low whistle. "Cool!"
They were in the room in no time. Barry – yeah, I'm serious, THE BARRY ALLEN AKA THE FLASH – entered first, grinning like an idiot.
"Morning guys." He greeted cheerfully, looking me over.
Caitlin flinched and her hands went up to her head. "Shhh." She whispered.
If I hadn't been about to go haywire I may have laughed.
"No need to ask what you've been up to," Oliver noted in his rather aloof but not unkind way.
"We wouldn't have to anyway – we knew exactly what you'd been up to the minute you stepped into the building. And I didn't need the cameras, either." Cisco said triumphantly.
"Oh? How'd you do that?" Barry asked.
Cisco nodded at me with a grin.
"Ah, yes, I remember hearing about your powers." Barry walked over with his hand outstretched and I shook it. "Barry Allen."
Powers... How long is it gonna take to get used to that? But then, it really shouldn't be hard as I know everything there is to know about this fictional crap – I'm basically a super-natural expert! But, oh crap, this is like, real, but not really real...
"Clay Buckley. But then, you already know that." I said.
"Yeah, kinda do." Barry gave me a friendly smile. "Meet Caitlin Snow. You'll have to excuse her; she's not in very good shape right now."
"S-So I noticed," I said, edgily, as Caitlin gave me a little wave and a pained smile.
"We were just going over the details of Clay's transformation," Oliver said, filling the newly-arrived scientists in.
Transformation. My brain echoed. What exactly have I 'transformed' into?
My hearing was stressing me out.
"Dammit!" I muttered to myself.
"OK, so here's the deal." Oliver started to explain the situation to me.
"What an asshole though!" I said quietly to myself, not able to ignore it any more.
"What's wrong?" Oliver immediately noted my distress.
"It's just my, uh, hearing. Bit of a bother." I got up and paced the room. "There's a, uh, dude beating up on his kids in a park."
"Bad?" Barry asked, immediately concerned.
"Not bad enough to call the cops about. He's mainly mentally messing with them. Christopher Columbus." I swore and leaned against the wall. It hurt to listen and induced flashbacks from my own childhood.
"Dude." I turned to Barry. "I gotta do something about this idiot. I can't let him do this to the poor kids."
"I'll be right back. Don't worry Clay." Barry said with a brief smile.
He disappeared out the door.
I met Oliver's gaze. He was staring at me with thoughtful eyes. Too thoughtful.
Dang. Dis is uncomfortable.
I had no idea what he was thinking about me.
I looked at Felicity. She smiled comfortingly at me, de-stressing my cluttered mind with the kindness evident on her face.
Then all of a sudden Barry was strolling back from where his suit was kept, already back in his casual clothes.
"Mission accomplished." He said triumphantly.
"What'd you do bro?"
"Gave the man a good talking to up on the roof of the tallest building in the city." Barry grinned. "I doubt that he's going to be touching his kids again any time soon, or even muttering one bad word to them. I made him aware of the fact that I will know if he does misstep. Obviously, it's not a perfect situation for the kids – they're probably going to be mainly ignored now – but it was the best option."
"Thanks, Barry," I said, visibly relieved.
"Any time, Clay." Barry smiled at me. "Back to you Oliver."
"OK, so, that afternoon..."
As he filled me in on some details, the memories came flooding back.
*flashback*
I dropped out of science, so I'm not understanding a word of what the tour guide is saying. Instead, I look at the dogs. There's quite a large selection, both big and small.
"We found that larger dogs can handle it best." The tour guide says. "Take this dog for example." She leads the group over to a cage where a large German Shepherd paces. "So far, this is the only dog that the experiments worked on. We haven't experimented on humans yet, but we're working on making it safe enough."
That's when I realize that they were trying to somehow give canine attributes to humans... And vice-versa? I realize that those... dog-human thingies would be a large asset to the military. Think of the scouting skills...
'This is almost like a Marvel movie!'
We continue with the tour, me deep in thought about this idea. 'I wonder how they'd get those characteristics into the human.' Just as that thought crosses my mind a child's scream grasps my attention. I spin around and see the snarling GSD approaching on the little girl on the floor. A piece of bread is grasped tightly in her hand.
Time slows as I drop my camera and bolt forward. I manage to get in front of the kid before the dog can touch her and the snarling animal attacks me instead. He jumps for my throat, and I instinctively bring my arm up to guard my face. His fangs embed into my arm and I cry out in pain. I manage to get an arm around the throat of my attacker and get him to release his hold but only for a moment before he latches on again.
A dart embeds itself in the dog's side, and a moment later he drops to the floor, unconscious. I look up and see security guards with their guns trained on the animal.
I stagger back a step, before falling to the ground. The mother of the child is embracing the shocked girl and the father hurries up to me to help me to my feet.
He thanks me profusely, then asks if I'm alright.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," I say, trying to shake the waves of dizziness that wash over me.
I'm brought to paramedics and they clean my wound.
In a daze, I walk back to the apartment I share with another student. I only make it to the steps before I collapse.
That's where my roommate finds me when he returns from a date with his girlfriend. He helps me inside, freaking out a bit at my bloodstained sleeve.
I remember getting into bed, thinking I'd feel better in the morning.
*flashback*
"It's all coming back?" Caitlin asked hopefully.
"I-I remember th-the afternoon, and going home in the evening, b-but after that – after that, all I remember is... Emotions." I struggled to explain it. "Ah-I remember feeling scared out of my wits, and-and frustrated – confused, and j-just really freaked – freaked out." My stammer was getting worse and I was starting to shake. I swiped at the sweat running down my face.
"Here, drink this," Cisco said quickly, handing me a glass with some kind of a liquid that I downed immediately.
I felt my nerves relax and I started breathing more regularly again.
"What did you give him?" Oliver questioned.
"A very mild sedative. It should keep him from phasing in here." Cisco said.
"Phasing?" I asked, not sure what they were talking about.
"Yes, phasing," Oliver said. "You see, when that dog bit you, he injected you with the chemicals needed to make the soldiers that the lab was trying to create."
"What you mean is that I'm one of those d-dog-people?" I asked, my heart beating faster even with the sedative.
"That's pretty much the size of it. But, I was thinking more, wait for it... 'Dogster'?" Cisco said with a grin. Then at the glares from everyone else, "Yes? Maybe not?"
"Definitely not," I said.
"You remember feeling scared and confused." Oliver took over in his authoritative way. "You phased into, erm, dog form, that night. Freaked out your roomie, went for a jog around town with your dogs and scared the hell out of quite a few unfortunate people. There was that one person, though, who got to see you phase back."
I buried my head in my heads. "Musta b-been a traumatic experience," I muttered.
"Quite." Oliver chuckled. "We found the person and gave her a short-term amnesia pill – she won't leak your secret. I guess you must have found a clothes donation box or something on your way back to your apartment."
"Shoot," I said, shaking my head. After a couple of minutes, I looked up. "H-how'd I end up in the hospital."
"It seems that even after you phased back and got home, you couldn't go to work, couldn't walk, couldn't eat, etc, so your roommate called an ambulance for you."
"But, why? I mean, wasn't I finished changing?"
"Not quite. You were unstable and couldn't control yourself in dog form, at all, which caused your phasing back. But that's a good thing." Felicity said. "I mean, it's not a good thing that you got into a fight with a pack of strays or that you put a person in the hospital due to your instability." She amended quickly. "It's good because the incompletion caused you to phase back, whereas if you'd finished transforming you wouldn't have been able to go back to human form that easily."
"Wait, hold on a sec. I put someone in the hospital?" I asked with dismayed shock.
"Er, yeah," Felicity said, immediately regretting what she'd let slip out. "But that's beside the point."
"N-no it's not!" I said incredulously. "I put. A person. In. The hospital. I mean, that's not something you do every day."
"I do," Barry spoke up.
"Huh?"
"I only bring them there," He amended. "as the Flash." He explained gauging me for a reaction.
"Yeah, obviously, but that's beside the point," I said, not in the least confused cause, hey, that's old news!
"No, seriously!" Barry stated.
I realized that he thought I just didn't believe him. That's a good thing. He isn't supposed to know that I know about them. "No kidding! Wow, that's so cool." I said with no emotion at all.
Oliver broke the awkward silence. "We'll get back to that some other time. Now, we have to figure out how to make you phase both ways, safely. What do we know about that so far?"
"Well, when Clay phased for the first time, he did so out of fear; fear of what was happening to him. We have to figure out how to get you to phase, without the fear factor, as that kinda scrambles your brain." Cisco explained. "And, of course, there's the problem of phasing back into human form. I'm working on that right now."
I must have spent two hours trying to phase with Oliver and Barry's encouragement, while Cisco, Caitlin, and Felicity worked on the scientific end of the operation.
"It's not going to work – we've tried everything," I said discouragingly, sitting down.
"It will eventually... but I have a feeling it won't be when we want it to happen," Oliver said, and I immediately read from his voice what he wouldn't say out loud. "And then you'll be a danger to helpless people."
Not cool. I dream about meeting these dudes in real life and when I finally do, all I am is another menace to the people that they protect. Not cool at all.
"We just have to find something that will trigger the phasing." Cisco sounded pretty discouraged himself. "There has to be something that we haven't thought of."
"And it's probably gonna be the most obvious thing." I sighed.
"Barry." Caitlin broke in urgently. "There's an emergency you have to get to right away."
Barry was in his suit and standing in front of Caitlin in the blink of an eye. "Where?"
Caitlin raised her eyes to Barry's expectant face, a pained look on hers. "There's a robbery underway at Central City Picture News."
Thank you so much for reading this far! If you could take a second to review and tell me your thoughts I'd be eternally grateful! x
TBC
